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From the Main Street Director’s Desk

Creating a buzz in Downtown Grayling

by Rae Gosling | Grayling Main Street Executive Director

Last week I discussed the importance of ongoing support from our community in volunteer and financial respects. Without volunteers and money there is no Grayling Main Street (GMSt) program. But more importantly, without Downtown Grayling there is no need for a GMSt program. This week we are focusing on downtown. The place, the destination, THE spot to be!

As I have talked about recently, Grayling was the recipient of a large-scale branding and marketing award. Our community’s involvement with Project Rising Tide and Redevelopment Ready Communities positioned us to receive other forms of technical assistance. It was decided that some of that technical assistance would be branding and marketing for the whole community. GMSt received their services first, and we are now fast approaching the completion of the community wide services.

This week GMSt will be showcasing our beautiful new downtown destination logo in partnership with 32 downtown businesses. A great team of volunteers worked on this exciting way to share our new look. We want everyone to go Downtown starting Thursday, March 9, through Wednesday, March 15, and look for the new colorful Downtown Grayling logo. Businesses have posters, stands, placemats, table tents, and coasters to spread the new image. As you make your way through Downtown Grayling snap a selfie with the new logo and let everyone on social media know you are out to #RediscoverDowntownGrayling by tagging GMSt and the business you are in on your post. One March 16 we will tally up the tags and the person who visited the most number of businesses will get to choose a downtown business to receive a gift card from, and the business with the most tags will get an ad paid for by GMSt. Watch for the Social Media Hit Squad to be out on Friday (March 10), starting at Tip’n The Mitten at 5:30 p.m., handing out swag and taking selfies.

The target of this project is multi-faceted. For starters, we are actively creating a buzz about Downtown Grayling by flooding Facebook with our tags in Downtown Grayling. Additionally, the more you tag GMSt and our businesses with your photos, the more likely they are to pop up in news feeds, generating more exposure. This draws people to our community’s pages, to our streets, and in the doors.

Secondly, we are creating a concerted image for our community. When people see our new logos, colors, and typeface in marketing in the future, they will more quickly associate the images and colors to Grayling. Much like many major brands, even when their name isn’t on it, you know who it is. We want to create that same effect here in Grayling. Our participation in Project Rise Tide allowed for the whole community to undergo this process. GMSt is just step one. In the coming weeks, Grayling as a destination and a city government will be rolling out new, similar, logos for marketing the region.

Finally, we are creating a sense of place with our new look by drawing on the elements of our community. Together under a common color, word type, and brand we can maximize our marketing and leverage our dollars more effectively.

Want to know more about how #RediscoverDowntownGrayling weekend went and what’s next on our agenda? Check back in future editions of the Avalanche for more From the Main Street Director’s Desk. You can also check out our website, www.DowntownGrayling.com, find us on Facebook, or email your questions to DowntownGrayling@gmail.com.

Rae Gosling is the Grayling Main Street Executive Director. She has been with the program since April 2016. She is a Grayling resident, wife, mother, local shopper, avid supporter of all things Grayling, and keeps everyone on their toes wondering what color her eye shadow and hair will be next.